Quick announcement from Carla Gade:

“The August Carnival of Christian Writers is right around the corner and will be held at Writer . . . Interrupted on Monday, August 25th. Please send in the link to your post along with a one sentence blurb about it no later than this Sunday.”

Submission Guidelines:

Christian writers share in the craft of writing fiction, non-fiction, publishing, and anything else related to writing, including their faith. Post must address the craft, call, process, struggle, etc. of writing. This is not a forum for your Christian writings; it is about the writing process and experiences with this process. See past carnivals for examples.

Submission deadline:

Noon on Saturday before the last Monday of the month. The Carnival posts on the last Monday. If you would like to submit to the Carnival, email Carla Gade, our Carnival Coordinator, at carnivalcw@gmail.com.

Please be sure to let folks know about the carnival on your blog. If you wish to use the carnival button the you can grab it HERE .

Posting will be light while I wrap up some research. Back by popular demand, a few miscellaneous quotes to inspire:

“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” ~ Emile Zola (1840-1902)

“You can only find truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.” ~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936)

“The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” ~ Winston Churchill

“The strokes of the pen need deliberation as much as the sword needs swiftness.” ~ Julia Ward Howe

“When a book leaves your hands, it belongs to God. He may use it to save a few souls or to try a few others, but I think that for the writer to worry is to take over God’s business.” ~ Flannery O’Connor

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Faith of Barack Obama
Author: Stephen Mansfield
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Recently Thomas Nelson supplied a free copy of their new release, The Faith of Barack Obama, in exchange for my review. I began the book with some trepidation, prepared to refute what I thought would be chapter after chapter of propaganda. After all, I’m not voting for Obama, but neither is the author.

The book is meticulously researched and well written. I found the author to be amazingly insightful, and generous - more generous to this “rock star” of a presidential candidate than I could ever be. What took me by surprise was how Obama’s childhood story riveted me. I felt something for him I couldn’t admit before - compassion. As a bi-racial youth, he certainly grew up feeling displaced, without a sense of country, abandoned by his biological father, someone who would search for years for identity, community, and purpose.

Many demonize Obama for his liberal politics; others applaud his vision to lead this country in a new direction. According to Mansfield, Obama is helping to give voice to a Religious Left and symbolizes a new generation who are deeply religious. Republicans aren’t the only ones with faith, the Democrats are saying. The problem is, faith nowadays can mean almost anything, especially when “the majority of America’s young are postmodern, which means they do faith like jazz: informal, eclectic, and often without theme.” Postmodern Christians today pick and choose what they want to believe, and so Obama’s nontraditional faith and his respect for non-Christian religions has broad appeal.

But Obama’s faith isn’t nontraditional because an atheist mother raised him, nor because he had a Muslim father and stepfather. For sure, he calls himself a Christian and it’s not our place to judge the man’s heart. But there are certain things a professing believer will not deny, truths that are clearly spelled out in the Scriptures, the central truth being: There is only one way to God - through His Son Jesus Christ.

Obama says, “I am rooted in the Christian tradition.” He has also said, “I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people” (pg.55).

According to the author, Obama has other disturbing views. When Obama’s daughter wanted to know what happens after death, he later said this: “I wondered if I should have told her the truth, that I wasn’t sure what happens when we die, any more than I was sure of where the soul resides or what existed before the Big Bang” (pg.56-57).

While Obama denies that his faith is the only path to God, he also doubts the inspiration of Scripture and the afterlife. Mansfield reminds us that he is not alone, though, that many of Obama’s beliefs are shared by most of the mainline Protestant denominations and the unchurched (pg.58) who “rework traditional faith in their generational image.” Appalling as that may sound, the author also reminds us to draw conclusions cautiously, that “all faith is a work in progress, and no man can be accurately portrayed by a portrait frozen in time.”

It’s safe to say that Barack Obama represents the new face of religion in American politics today. He’s passionate about social justice. What I find absolutely ironic is how the same man who desires to speak up for the oppressed in this country does not have a voice for the unborn.

After reading The Faith of Barack Obama, I no longer question if this man has faith, but how his particular brand of faith will affect the leadership of our nation, should he win the election. We need to be praying, especially in light of Obama’s admission:

“Alongside my own deep personal faith, I am a follower, as well, of our civic religion.”

Civic religion? Does this mean that traditional faith must kneel at the altar of the state? Obama certainly uses symbolic language that many say only conceals a hidden agenda. Mansfield’s book, however, doesn’t push agenda, but thoughtfully raises all sides of speculation, providing ample documentation while letting the reader conclude what he will about Obama.

This book takes an in-depth look at the forming of Obama’s unorthodox faith, the condition of our nation, and our present troubled political landscape. I still have questions about the man that nobody can answer, perhaps not even Obama himself. Yet it seems imperative that we pray, not just for the election, but that Barack Obama would grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of spewing vitriol, we have the privilege and responsibility to pray for those who influence our nation.

Obama’s left-wing voting record is just too much for me; his brand of spirituality seems foreign to everything I know about biblical Christianity. But he once said he was committed to discovering God’s truth. May it be so. Whether we like it or not, Obama will probably be around for years to come, whether he wins this presidential election or the next. ~

“Let everything go that belongs to the natural - all your own notions, plans, ways, and thoughts - and accept in their stead God’s plans, ways, and thoughts. Do this faithfully and do it persistently, and you will come at last to reign with Him in an inner Kingdom which will break in pieces and consume all other kingdoms and will stand forever.” ~ Hannah Whitall Smith, from God is Enough

“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” Albert Schweitzer

When the muse fades and writing dreams wilt, who in your life takes notice? Who comes alongside you to encourage and care? A compassionate spouse? A loyal friend? An understanding family member? Maybe you have writing buddies who know firsthand how to prime a rusty pump or lift a sagging spirit. In any case, God will provide what we need.

Because sometimes we just need a little rekindling.

“No one can bar the road to truth, and to advance its cause I am prepared to accept even death.” ~ Solzhenitsyn

On August 3, Solzhenitsyn died.

“The man credited with exposing the brutality of Stalin’s purges and gulag system has died aged 89. Nobel prize winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1974 but returned to Russia in the 1990s. He died in Moscow in the early hours of Monday from a suspected stroke.”

He was a Nobel prize winning author, compared to the likes of Dostoyevsky, Chekov, and Tolstoy. Some call him a prophet. I call him a courageous truth-teller.

“One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world,” he said.

Solzhenitsyn’s first book, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) is a “forceful artistic indictment of political oppression in the Stalin-era Soviet Union.” This short novel opened our eyes to a typical, grueling day of the character’s life in a Siberian labor camp. Solzhenitsyn himself spent time in the gulags, imprisoned for making derogatory statements about Stalin in a letter to a friend.

“He wrote that while an ordinary man was obliged “not to participate in lies,” artists had greater responsibilities. ‘It is within the power of writers and artists to do much more: to defeat the lie!’” ~ The New York Times

Albert Mohler shares: “Edward E. Erickson, who wrote two major works on Solzhenitsyn, argues that the key to understanding Solzhenitsyn is Christianity - the Russian Orthodox faith that framed Solzhenitsyn’s worldview. Erickson argued that “in a day when secular humanism flourishes among the cultural and intellectual elite, he holds fast to traditional Christian beliefs.”

I’ll be looking more into the faith of Solzhenitsyn and share what I find. Oh, that we all would have the courage to write the truth!

Washington Post
Nobel Acceptance Speech in 1970
The New York Times article
WikiQuote on Solzhenitsyn
Speech at Harvard, 1978: A World Split Apart

“You are not called upon to commit yourself to a need, or to a task, or to a field. You are called upon to commit yourself to God! It is He then who takes care of the consequences and commits you where He wants you.” ~ Major Ian Thomas, The Saving Life of Christ

No doubt we’ve all bumped into criticism. What’s the best way to handle it? Apparently, attitude makes all the difference:

“Good, great, universal art may be incomprehensible to a small circle of spoiled people, but certainly not to any large number of plain men.” ~ Leo Tolstoy

“Pay no attention to what the critics say; there has never been set up a statue in honor of a critic.” ~
Jean Sibelius

“I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.” ~ Bill Cosby

“This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don’t consider it rejected. Consider that you’ve addressed it ‘to the editor who can appreciate my work’ and it has simply come back stamped ‘Not at this address.’ Just keep looking for the right address.”
~ Barbara Kingsolver

“To avoid criticism do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.” ~ Elbert Hubbard

“Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great.”~ Kenny Rogers

“Close the door. Write with no one looking over your shoulder. Don’t try to figure out what other people want to hear from you; figure out what you have to say. It’s the one and only thing you have to offer.”~ Barbara Kingsolver

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” ~ Robert Frost

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” ~ E.L. Doctorow

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” ~ Mark Twain

“Pray for God’s enablement and don’t forget to abide.”
~ V. Gaines

Pardon me for posting this a bit late, but I hope many of you will want to participate:

It’s time again for another Carnival of Christian Writers! The July carnival will be held at Writer … Interrupted next Monday, July 28th. Please send in your posts no later than this Sunday. After a month off in June we’re sure you have much to share. Just send along your link with a short blurb about the post.

Ideas:
* How to stay focused on your writing career during the summer.
* Fun with writing.
* What you are learning about the craft of writing.
* Getting ready for ACFW conference!

Please be sure to let folks know about the carnival on your blog. If you wish to use the carnival button the you can grab it here: Carnival button

The carnival link page is: Carnival Submissions . Send submissions or questions to carnivalcw @gmail.com

We hope you’ve all been enjoying your summer and look forward to receiving your carnival entry!

Blessings,
Carla Gade, Carnival Coordinator